By Nia McLean, CNN

(CNN) — When Charmain Jackman and her husband decided to seek couples therapy, they had a list of criteria. As a black psychologist of Barbadian descent, Jackman knew she was looking for a therapist of color who had experience working with couples. But the search proved more difficult than she expected.

“We wanted someone who understood our culture,” Jackman told CNN. “We didn’t want to explain our family experiences or our experiences as immigrants.”

Ultimately, Jackman said, their therapist was a white, Jewish woman because they had a hard time finding a therapist of color.

Nationally, only about 4% of psychologists identify as Black or African American.

“We are like a needle in a haystack,” Jackman said.

But she kept looking and, after nine months, finally found a black therapist. Jackman said the long search was her impetus for starting a new business.

In 2020, she launched Innopsych, an online directory of therapists of color. The company aims to change the way people of color view therapy by making it easier for them to find a therapist who understands them.

Jackman said the company’s efforts highlight a larger problem in the health care system: a lack of diversity among healthcare professionals can impact patients and their outcomes.

“People often come to treatment much later, when the disease is already worse, which means more intensive and invasive treatment options are needed,” Jackman told CNN. “But I also know that if people don’t get the care they need, it can be fatal.”

“I just want to make sure I’m being listened to”

In the United States, the death rate for black newborns is three times higher than that for white newborns. However, a 2020 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that black infants have a higher chance of survival when treated by a black doctor, according to previous CNN reports.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, black men and women die from HIV at a much higher rate than white men, in part because of limited access to effective antiretroviral therapies. A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that black patients received HIV therapies significantly later when treated by white doctors than when treated by black doctors or when white patients were treated by white doctors.

And in a recent survey, 60% of African American adults said they prepare for insults from medical staff when preparing for doctor visits.

For Dr. Uché Blackstock, a physician and thought leader on racism in health care, such inequalities underscore the need to address systemic racism and increase the number of doctors of color.

But only about 5.7% of doctors identify themselves as black or African American, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

To increase representation, Blackstock says, we also need to address the barriers that prevent people of color from becoming doctors in the first place, such as racism, microaggressions and access to education.

After ten years in academic medicine, Blackstock told CNN in 2019 that she quit her job because she “felt so undervalued and underestimated as a Black woman physician.” That same year, she founded Advancing Health Equity with the goal of partnering with health organizations to dismantle racism in health care and close the racial gap in health care.

AHE conducts racial equity assessments and evaluations for healthcare programs and organizations. The organization also provides coaching to healthcare leaders to ensure they incorporate health equity into their work.

Blackstock later wrote a best-selling book examining the legacy of racism in the American health care system. She said one of the problems exacerbating racial inequality in health care is the lingering impact of entrenched racism in medical training.

She appreciates “Between 25,000 and 30,000” black doctors could have been trained at historically black colleges, but a 1910 report evaluating their programs against European standards forced most of the schools to close.

Blackstock said many of the schools did not meet the criteria set out in the report commissioned by the American Medical Association because racism and years of inequality had led to a lack of resources.

Although she founded AHE in 2019, Blackstock found that interest in her company and its DEI work increased significantly in 2020.

“In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter movement took off and the pandemic began, many health organizations realized they needed to increase their capacity to address racial health inequities,” said Dr. Blackstock.

The pandemic has also exposed larger inequities in our health care system that made communities of color more likely to be affected by Covid-19. According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, excess mortality among Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native men and women was three to four times higher than among white men and women at the start of the pandemic.

Blackstock recalls a situation in which she entered a patient’s room at the height of the pandemic, dressed head to toe in personal protective equipment.

Her patient was a young black woman who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a few weeks earlier and was suffering from shortness of breath.

“There was so much we didn’t know back then,” Blackstock told CNN. “Literally almost everything about me was hidden.”

After introducing herself, Blackstock said, the patient asked a very important question: “Are you black?”

“Yes, of course I am,” she replied.

“She took a deep breath and said, ‘Thank you. I just want to make sure someone is listening to me.'”

Helping doctors succeed

When Jaines Andrades started her job at Baystate Medical in Springfield, Massachusetts, she was a janitor, but she went to nursing school and returned to the hospital as a nurse ten years later.

Now she’s advocating for more diversity in healthcare. In May, Andrades testified during a Senate committee hearing on the shortage of minority health care workers and the maternal mortality crisis among minority women.

Andrades spoke of her own experiences and told the committee that she believes “sound academic and career planning is critical” to improving diversity in healthcare.

“It is critical to make it clear to students that it is within their reach and that resources are available to them to begin the path to higher education,” Andrades said during the hearing.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a historic $600 million donation to the endowments of four historically black medical schools.

The donation is one of the largest ever to a historically black college or university and includes $175 million each to Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine.

Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science is set to receive $75 million, while Xavier University of Louisiana, which is opening a new medical school, will receive a $5 million grant, according to previous CNN reports.

Without further financial investment, Andrades told CNN, these programs are unlikely to succeed.

“We can have the best intentions and develop all these different programs, but if they’re not funded, they’re not going anywhere,” she said. “One of the most important ways to close that gap is to make it financially possible for people to go to school.”

This includes ensuring that the basic needs of all students – but especially those from low-income families – are met, Andrades said.

“If you don’t have a roof over your head, food or water, an education is not at the top of your priority list.”

Andrades recommends investing federal funds in mentoring and programs like the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership (BSEP), which offers high school students the opportunity to learn about different careers and prepare for potential internships or job opportunities. Many former BSEP students now work as health care professionals at Baystate Health in Springfield, MA, Andrades said.

“I believe that federal support for such programs could result in many more minority students pursuing successful careers in health care,” Andrades told the committee in May.

She later told CNN that creating a supportive environment for bonding was also crucial.

“You can see a sense of relief on a patient’s face when they see someone who looks like them or when you speak their language,” Andrades added. “It’s just a pure sense of relief.”

Although some politicians and critics have targeted programs to increase diversity in higher education and business in recent years, Blackstock says interest in her organization’s work remains.

“Fortunately, despite the backlash, there is still a lot of interest from health care organizations that want to advocate for equity,” she said.

Blackstock said Pathway programs are just one piece of a larger puzzle.

“How do we ensure that the leadership of these organizations in medical schools, in residency and in teaching are prioritizing environments where Black physicians and healthcare professionals can not only survive but thrive?” she said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery company. All rights reserved.